The Real Bears

"BROWNSTEIN: So, like you said, I was in a rock band for a while and we had a company meeting and the first thing that the head of the company said at the meeting was "this is rock and roll." And I just thought, you know what, it's not."

Advertising rock stars. We want to believe so badly in that concept. If anyone is associated with that moniker, it's Alex Bogusky. But as he knows, the term rock star comes with price. Perhaps that's why he walked away from that crap.

Some have said before though, that it's easy to have principles when you've made your millions. Just look at John Lennon and his Bed-in stunt.

After all, if Bogusky was really so upset about sugar and salt and gas burning cars and all the things he's sold over the decades in his previous Rock Star life, you'd think he'd demand they remove the "B" off the door of CP+B, no?

But you know what? I believe from his Fearless interviews with Al Gore and other folks, not to mention writing the diet book during his BK years that Bogusky turned the corner. He's been out of the game for a bit; he may have decided it's better to solve world problems rather than just solve client problems.

At least now Bogusky is putting his money where his mouth is to help influence another state's vote on a cause he believes in: Prop 37 .

Bogusky's effort comes in conjunction with The Center For Science In The Public Interest, or CPSI called The Real Bears. While it is pointedly aimed at the Coca-Cola bears, the film (with original music by Jason Mraz ) is more of a generic attack on soda makers in general.

As the video bumps along merrily to the song's sugar-pop melody we see the bears get fat, lose their teeth fail to have sex because of erectile dysfunction, and have all other kind of maladies until one of them ends up with diabetes and has their paw removed by a chainsaw. (Don't worry, it's G rated. You don't see anything. It's merely implied in a Marathon Man sort of way.) All while these bears visit the Be Happy Please Machine. Side note: I wonder how Wieden feels about that.

It's all a very dippy way to get us to The Real Bears site to learn more facts and figures and hopefully dissuade us from drinking sugary beverages.

But don't fret about this alternate version of the bears! When they realize the error of their ways-- presumably because of the constant statistics being interspersed in such a straight forward see-say manner, they pour out the sugary mess into the ocean.

Wait, whaaaaaaaaat?! Now the bears have gone from being fat diseased pawns of Big Cola, into full fledged polluters. Please tell me is setting us up for a sequel.

As for whether this will reach any of the people who need the awareness, i.e. people who aren't in advertising? The jury is out.

I think the intention was supposed to be a music video. The Jason Mraz song was specifically written for this. But yeah I agree it could have been a minute shorter. Or alternately they could have shown the bears throwing the empty cola bottles into the same ocean they dumped the soda in, before campaigning for the Alaska Pipe Line.